Scanning system for motion picture films



July 17, l95l G. E. SLEEPER, .1R 2,560,994

SCANNING SYSTEM FOR MOTION PICTURE FILMS Filed April-5. 194s mndrlznnunn l ncrnnqnnnnnnu JNVEN TOR. new f, .525i/@f2 Je Patented July 17, 1951 UNITED STATES PAT-ENT OFFICE 2 Claims.

This invention relates lto a scanning system .for transmitting color television .images from motion picture nlm. In this system certain of the in-I strumentalities employed in Imy previous in vention, covered by my co-pending application, 5 Preferably the images are displaced slightly Serial No. 747,452, filed May 12, 1947, are emin .the direction of the motion of the film, so ployed, and to this extent it may be considered that, 4as the trace of the beam scans along lany as an improvement on that invention. individual Lline, its image as it traverses the suc- Among the objects -of my invention are: ccssive portions of the ield on the cathode ray To provide a system which adapts the benetube will ,retraverse the same portion ofthe lm. fits oi the ying spot method of scanning to The scanning is accomplished in `such direction colored lm; that `the component 4of the motion of the image To provide a system for `.sequential scanning of the flying spot on `the film travels rin the vopof television images -Which does' not demand posits direction to the film motion itself, with the .generation or injection of additional pulses the result that the ,relative speeds lof the image into the television circuits, but, yon the contrary, and `the film is double .the speed of the film. may be accomplished with even simpler elec- The motion of the ilm and the vertical scantrical apparatus than is required for ordinary ning oscillations are synchronized, so that the black and white interlaced scanning; and start of the scanning cycle corresponds with the To provide a scanning system which does centering of a frame of .the nlminthe gate 'area. not demand that multiple equipment be aclf this single synchronization is properly done, cura'tely synchronized and brought into adjustand Vthe horizontal ,scanning rate is such as toment, but largely, self adjusting. give an odd number of scanning lines, such as In the description of the system which follows the present standard yof 525 lines, the result will it will be assumed that the usual three-color be .thateach frame of .thevlm is scanned twice method of transmission is used, but itis to be in proper Aorder .to produce the standard twounderstood that the system may be equally well to-one interlace, and each line .of the :lm will used with two-color transmissions. The-method be scanned in turn by various colors used in the of adaptation to the .two-color system will be transmission. Light transmitted by the lm is obvious to those skilled in the art, since it ingathered by a lphoto tube, .and generates the volves merely the omission of certain elements Signals used for the ,transmission rin the usual from .the optical system. manner.

Considered broadly, my invention involves My invention will be more clearly understood progressing the film at a constant speed (i. e., by reference to the drawings ,and the ensuing without the usual interrupted motion utilized detailed description. in direct motion picture projection), the rate In the drawings: of motion being equal to the frame frequency Fig. l is a schematic drawing of the system, desired; with the frame or repetition frequency partly in blockand partlyin lsymbolic form; now in general use, this would mean progressing Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the 1relative posithe lllm at a uniform speed of 30 frames per 40 tions of the iilm and the gate at the beginning second. A cathode ray tube of the ilying spot ofthe oscillator scanning cycle; and type is provided, over the fluorescent screen of Fig. `3 is a similar diagram showing the posiwhich a trace of the cathode -ray beam is scanned. tions of kgate `and lm in the middle of the oscil- The field scanned by rthe trace lis projected lator scanning cycle, the gate, in this instance, optically upon a -gate area of `the vfilm which is being indicated in dottedlines, in order to Vshow equal in size to the frame. In terms 4of the size more clearly the frames .on the lm. of the image, the eld scanned is an integral .Referring first to Fig. 1, a master oscillator yI number of times the width vof the frame on the provides a base I:frequency from which are de-k lm, but is equal in length or height of image. rived (in accordance with current standards) a The optical system used is such as to project saw-tooth vertical scanning wave of 30 cycles per upon the gate area a plurality of superimposed second, andahorizontalsaw-toothscanning wave images of the laterally adjacent portions of ythe at a frequency of 15,750 cycles per second, to give eld, and each of the images :is of a different a 525-line picture. These'wavesare generated color. This latter can be accomplished either by in a well-known manner by the vertical scanning making .the fluorescent screen of the'ilyin'g spot 55 generator '2, 'and horizontal scanning .generator tube "with vertical stripes of materials fluorescing in different colors, .or the usual vfilters can be provided on the diierent elements of 'the optical system.

3, respectively. The master oscillator also feeds the synchronous motor 5, which, through a gear box 6, drives a `sprocket 1 which progresses the lm 8.

The film is pulled down by th`e drive sprocket over a second sprocket I0, and past a gate area II. The gate is preferably slightly higher than one frame of the film, and may, if desired, be pro'- vided with a central crossbar I2, as is more clearly shown in Fig. 2, for purposes later to be described.

Facing the gate there is mounted a cathode ray tube I5, and multiple images of portions of the screen I6 of this tube are focused upon the gate. The optical system used in this projection may be and is preferably of the type described in my prior application, Ser. No. 747,452, previously mentioned. This optical system comprises three distributor lenses (to use the nomenclature of the prior application mentioned) I1, the light from which is collected by a single lens I8 and projected onto the gate area. Distributor elements I1 are adjusted by the means 2l! so that the images of the three lateral adjacent portions 21R, 2IG and ilB of the seid scanned by the tube I are relatively displaced slightly in the vertical direction, this displacement being upward, in the case of each successive image scanned by a single sweep of the beam, by an amount equal to two-thirds of the space between the successive lines of scansion.

The scanning of the fluorescent screen I8 starts at the upper left-hand corner of the eld scanned, and, by the inversion produced by the optical system, the scanning. of the image therefore starts in the lower right-hand corner. If the aspect ratio of the frame on the film is four to three, the aspect ratio of the field scanned on the tube will be twelve to three; i. e., the field scanned on the tube is relatively three times as wide as the motion picture frame. The image of the spot on the film travels in the opposite direction of the film motion, and therefore, by virtue of the displacement of the images, the same line on the fllm will be traversed by the successive images of the spot on the fluorescent screen as the lm is progressed.

The fluorescent screen on the tube may either be formed in strips, as are shown by the dotted lines across the face, fiuorescing respectively in red, green, and blue, or a white fluorescent screen may be used and color filters used on the distributor elements I1. Both of these expedients are well known in the art.

The saw-tooth waves from the vertical scanning generator 2 and the horizontal generator 3 are fed to the vertical deflecting plates 25 and horizontal deflecting plates 26 of the cathode ray tube respectively.

It has already been stated that the motion of the film and the scanning frequency are at the same rate, namely,l 30 cycles per second. The vertical scan is phased so that at the beginning of the cycle of the scanning oscillator, at the moment when the beam starts its first horizontal sweep across the tube, the image of the spot 21 will fall in the corner of the frame which is centered in the gate I I at that instant. The spot sweeps to the left and up as the nlm moves down. As the spot enters the area 2IG, due to the displacement of the green image, the spot will be slightly below its position as shown in Fig. 2, but will fall on the same portions of the film frame, and the same thing will happen again when the spot enters the area 2IB to trace the blue image.

In the next sweep the spot will have jumped upward into position to scan the next line. At the end of one-sixtieth of a second the spot will have reached the position indicated by the reference character 21 in Fig. 3, but in the meantime it will have traversed the bar I2 in the gate, and will therefore have been effectively blanked out during this period, since its light cannot then fall upon the film. When it reaches the position shown in Fig. 3, it will have completed scanning frame I, which wil1,.by that time, have passed half-way out of the gate. During the next half of the vertical scanning cycle the spot will scan frame II, and by the end of the second onesixtieth of a second the latter will be in a position fully to occupy the gate, this occurring just as the scanning cycle is completed (neglecting the fly-backtime) A second scanning of frame II is accomplished in the same manner as the scanning of frame I already described, and the Whole operation is repeated for successive frames. The number of scanning lines is odd, as has been described, and

the speed of the lm is properly synchronized with the scanning speed, and hence the two-to-one interlace provided by present standards is automatically accomplished.

Blanking of the scanning beam between cycles of the scanning oscillator 2 is triggered in synchronism with the ily-back of the vertical scan as is common practice, and therefore it has not been deemed necessary to show here the blanking mechanism. The blanking can be accomplished either by a grid in the tube I5, or the blankingsignal can be injected into the video amplifier;

The blanking pulses for the alternate half-cycle of the scanning generator need not be separately provided, since this is accomplished by the blacking out due to the crossbar I2 in the gate. This, however, is only one means of accomplishing this. Blanking can also be done by an opaque or nonfluorescent strip 28 across the face of the cathodeV ray tube, or it may beinjected electrically.

Illumination produced by' the images of the spot 21 falling upon the film and transmitted by the lm falls upon a photocell 30, preferably of the multiplier type. rSignals thus produced are fed into a video amplifier 3| and thence into a monitor tube 32 into the radio transmitter (not shown) or transmission line.

The system as thus described possesses the advantage of great simplicity and of ease of adjustment. The only one of the adjustments which is lreally critical is the displacement of the images so that the different colored spots traverse theA same line on the lm. It is, of course, necessary that the images of the color fields be of proper size, but this can be roughly accomplished electrically, and a nal adjustmentmay be made by varying the focus.- The vertical scan and the speed of the nlm are automatically synchronized by the use of the same master oscillator to run both, and the ordinary framing device which is provided on all motion picture equipment enables the film to be brought into proper position at the' beginning of the scanning cycle; this is accomplished merely by watching the position of the images on the monitor tube.

Broadly, the usefulness of this system is not limited to color film, since a very simple method of interlace is provided for black and white tele-y vision by substituting an ordinary single optical system for the triple system used with color.

Various other modifications will be at once evident to those skilled in the art. The gate I I need not actually be a material gate of the size of a frame, although some method is necessary for holding the film `Flat while it is being scanned. With many films the unexposed portion between the frames may be suilicient to pro vide the blanking during the half-cycle interlace period. I therefore do not wish to be lim ited to the exact composition of apparatus here described in detail, but desire to be protected as broadly as defined by the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. A flying-spot television scanning device ci the variety wherein a raster on the target of a cathode ray tube is imaged upon a motion picture iilm strip comprising a centrally divided lm gate having two windows and located in the path of the light rays passing' between the tube image raster area and the hlm, said windows each having an aspect ratio auch that its long dimension is proportional to the long dimension of the image which is to be produced to simulate the hlm frame, and such that each of its shorter dimensions is proportional to the second dimension of the image to be produced to simulate the lm frame, drive mechanism for moving the nlm through the nlm gate at constant speed such that n iilm frames pass completely through the gate per second; dei'iecting means for delecting the cathode ray beam in bidirectional paths at substantially diierent rates such that the beam mc tion in the rapid direction is at n times the num ber of lines scanned per image and the motion in the slower direction is at a rate corresponding to the nlm frame advance rate of n; a light translating element connected to respond to the varying intensities of light and shadow on the film as refiected thereby during tracing of the film by the image of the raster presented thereto through the window of the film gate; an optical system for directing the light of the raster to the continuously moving 111m through the winn dows of the lm gate so that the lm is scanned while passing through the iilm gate at a rate such that each lm frame is scanned 2n times during each passage through the complete gate; and means provided between the central division of the film gate windows for suppressing the scann ning effect of the beam forming the raster as it scans the hlm frame within the film gate.

2. A flying spot television iilm scanning device of the type wherein a raster traced upon the luminescent target of a cathode ray tube under scansion by a cathode ray beam is imaged upon a motion picture film strip subject for image analysis comprising a film gate for positioning the lm strip and locating the strip in the path 6 of the light rays issuing from the tube target raster, said lm gate having a pair of rectangular Windows separated from each other by a dividing strip extending transverse to the long dimension of the lm, each of said rectangular windows also having the long dimension substantially corresponding to the long dimension of each hlm frame and the shorter dimension substantially half the shorter dimension oi' each film frame; a drive mechanism for moving the nlm strip subject through the film gate at a constant speed of n film frames per second; cathode ray beam deiiecting means connected to deiiect the scanning cathode ray beam to trace the image raster in such a manner that the number of complete image rasters traced per second corresponds to the number of film frames passing through the said hlm gate per second and so thatr the number of line traces per raster correspondsy to the number of lines into which each lm frame image is to be analyzed per scanning; means to.

cause the direction of traverse of the Window openings by the light spot originating on the luminescent target under cathode ray beam scansion to move in its slower path of motion in a direction opposite that of iilm frame advance' through the lm gate to provide for scanningl the iilm, and means provided by the dividing stripbetween the window areas of the film gate for sup-1 pressing the scanning effect of the light spot. traces the combined.

image of the beam as it Window areas.

GEORGE E. SLEEPER, JR..

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the;A le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,083,203 Schlesinger June 8, 1937' 2,163,540 Clothier June 20, 1939- 2,189,351 Schroter Feb. 6, 1940 2,225,033 Condlili'e Dec. 17, 1940 2,250,479 Goldn'lark July 29, 1941 2,251,786 Epstein Aug. 5, 1941 2,259,884 Goldsmith Oct. 21, 1941 2,261,848 Goldmark Nov. 4, 1941 2,291,723 Jensen Aug. 4, 1942 2,389,646 Sleeper Nov. 27, 1945 2,413,075 Schade Dec. 24, 1946 2,420,029 Brady May 6, 1947 2,438,269 Buckbee Mar. 23, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 231,805 Switzerland July 17, 1944 562,334 Great Britain June 28, 1944 

